Saturday, June 1, 2013

Wild West Part I

Well folks, nine hundred rental car miles and 1,048 pictures later, we have returned from our Wild West Adventure to Wyoming. There are no words or pictures good enough to describe how AMAZING this vacation was. But you bet your bittie I'm gonna try! For time purposes (on your part and mine) I'm gonna break the trip down into 3 parts.

J and I have always talked about going to Yellowstone, so about a month and a half ago, we finally just said-what the heck-and we booked it! I was so excited that I started a countdown on our chalkboard from 47 days! So when we left for the airport at 5:00 a.m. last Wednesday, it looked like this (I didn't have the energy at 5:00 a.m. to change it to "0")

We landed in the smack middle of the Grand Teton mountains and walked through an archway of antlers to get into the airport. The airport has 9 gates, one baggage claim, and a two lane road to get in and out. This place was already meeting our "middle of nowhere" criteria.

We checked into our first destination, the Rustic Inn, where we had a DARLING little cabin at the foothill of the mountains with a stream running right in front of our little porch. It even had little tepees around the property.SO CUTE!

Jeremie and I were starving, so we freshened up and headed to a place called Local for supper. (Recommended by a local.) It was fantastic and quite possibly the best steak and potatoes I've ever had. Jackson Hole was the most DARLING little town with shops and restaurants around the town square with the famous elk antler arches.

We slept super late the next morning, so of course that called for a cowboy sized breakfast! We checked out The Bunnery (another local recommendation) and again ate ourselves silly. Hello.

Afterwards, while shopping around the square, J and I both purchased hats...J's was a normal one...but I finally got my own coontail Davie Crockett hat. I remember being a kid and always wanting one of my own...don't ask my why. So even though I will probably only wear it on Halloween, J was happy to fork out the $8 if it fulfilled this childhood dream of mine. The man is still making my dreams come true.

J sporting his new hat...I think this bear chair made him feel like an Indian chief.

Note, we are in the middle of the mountains and I had to wait 10 minutes for J to walk this "Labyrinth". He finally made it to the middle.

Later that day we hit up the Visitor's Center, like any good tourist. I'm glad we did, because a worker told us about a short drive we could take that afternoon that was off the beaten path. So we grabbed our map and hit the road!

This map became our bible for the next few days!

The views were breathtaking! On this drive we saw our first buffalo, moose, and the famous barn that you see in all the Grand Teton photos. It was down a dirt road that we probably never would have gone down. We had a great time and it just filled us with more anticipation for the rest of our trip!

These fences were everywhere....which was beautiful. They work well in the winter because they can pick them up and set them on the snow....and the fence goes back down to the ground as the snow melts!

This barn is on a dirt road called Mormon Row...gorgeous!

I LOVED the moose!!! They are so big in person! Their antlers were still in velvet, but so neat!

The next morning we ate brunch at Dolce, which has 14 different types of gourmet grilled cheeses on their menu. So J and I shared a grilled cheese and their fresh handmade donuts that came with three different dipping sauces. Ya'll-if this place would ship these donuts- I would have them every day. They were heavenly. I am hungry just thinking about it right now.

And that wraps up Jackson Hole! The next day we headed to Yellowstone, which will begin Part II of this trilogy! Stayed tuned. : )